Circular knitting machines



Aug. 21, 1962 J. M. R. REYMES'COLE ETAL 3,049,899

CIRCULAR KNITTING MACHINES Original Filed Nov. 19, 1956 5 Sheets-Sheet 1 Aug. 21, 1962 J. M. R. REYMES-COLE ETAL ,0

CIRCULAR KNITTING MACHINES Original Filed Nov. 19, 1956 3 Sheets-Sheet 2 ill I I II" III! III H III Aug- 1962 J. M. R. REYMES-"COLE ETAL CIRCULAR KNITTING MACHINES Original Filed Nov. 19, 1956 5 Sheets-Sheet 3 United States Patent 3,049,399 CRCULAR KNITTING MACS John Maurice Reyrnes Reymes-Coie, Blaby, and Bernard Thornton Reymes Reyrnes-Cole, Burhage, near Hinckley, England, assignors, by mesne assignments, to Singar-Fidelity, Inc., Philadelphia, Pa., a corporation of Delaware Original application Nov. 19, 1956, Ser. No. 623,605, now Patent No. 2,980,981, dated Apr. 25, 1961. Divided and this application Aug. 27, 1959, Ser. No. 836,548

9 Claims. (Cl. 66-46) This invention concern machines for knitting ladies stockings and particularly seamless stockings. In the manufacture of ladies stockings it is usual to form a pouch at the heel by the provision of additional fabric at this location. In the case of fully fashioned stockings there are various well known methods of providing this additional fabric. In the case of a seamless stocking it is customary to provide the additional fabric in pouch form, the pouch being knitted by reciprocation on approximately half the number of needles, and the toe is shaped by the formation of a similar pouch. These known methods of producing the heel and toe by reciprocatory knitting necessarily involve some reduction in the production rate, and one object of the invention is to provide apparatus for producing the heel in a ladies stocking without appreciable reduction in the speed at which the. heel of the stocking is knitted as contrasted with the speeds of production of the adjacent parts of the foot and leg. Another object is to provide apparatus for knitting a seamless stocking having a heel of improved appearance.

In making stockings by means of apparatus according to the invention use is made of the known properties of synthetic thermo-plastic yarn (and primarily that yarn which is known as nylon and other yarns of man-made fibres possessing setting properties) viz. that a fabric knitted from this yarn may be distorted to take up a predetermined shape and be caused to set in that shape by a proper heat treatment (itself well known). The heel shaping is formed in part by the present apparatus and in part by distortion of the fabric into the final shape required and setting it in such shape in accordance with the method disclosed in co-pending application Serial No. 623,005 filed November 19, 1956, and now Patent No. 2,980,981, from which the present application is divided.

The production of the desired pouch shape for the heel is facilitated by use of the present apparatus which operates to omit spaced courses from the instep during the knitting of the stocking at the heel location. When knitting the stocking in this way the instep and heel fabrics having different numbers of courses are conveniently to be connected at a plurality of wales. For example certain spaced needles in the instep portion of the course near its junction with the heel portion of the course are brought into knitting operation with the heel needles while intervening needles among the instep needles are brought into and out of knitting action with the main group of instep needles. This will serve to anchor the partial courses to the full courses at a plurality of spaced wales.

The invention accordingly comprises a circular knitting machine organised to knit the foot, heel part, toe and leg of a ladies stocking by rotational knitting and having a group of heel needles used for knitting the heel pouch and certain needles adjoining them and separated by intervening needles operable by means of butts of one length and other needles including said intervening needles used for knitting the forward or instep portion opposite the heel operable by means of butt of a diiferent length, and a selecting cam movable towards and away from an operative selecting position in relation to the needle cylice inder in advance of the stitch cam in which selecting position the said selecting cam serves by selective deflection of needles to cause the needles operable by said different length butts to be withheld from knitting activity while the remaining needles are caused to knit.

The aforementioned and other features of the invention are more fully set out in the following description of a preferred manner of carrying out the invention given by way of example With reference to the accompanying drawings in which FIGURE 1 is a view of the lower portion of a stocking made by apparatus in accordance with the invention;

FIGURE 2 shows on a similar scale in perspective a knitted tube of fabric from which the stocking is formed;

FIGURE 3 is a greatly enlarged view of a portion of the fabric on one side of the heel of the stocking shown in FIGURE 1;

FIGURE 4- shows in side elevation a knitting machine having mechanism applied thereto for carrying out the invention;

FIGURE 5 is an enlarged perspective view of certain parts of the mechanism shown in FIGURE 4;

FIGURE 6 is a diagrammatic development view of a cam arrangement employed in the machine, and

FIGURE 7 is a somewhat enlarged diagrammatic view of the needle circle showing the butt arrangement.

In FIGURE 1 there is shown the foot portion of a ladies stocking the foot proper being indicated at 10, heel pouch at 11 and leg at 12. The shaping of the heel is effected partially by stretching the heel portion widthwise on a shaped form and then setting the fabric to the desired shape by the application of heat in the performance of the preboarding operation, as described in our co-pending application Serial No. 623,005. In so shaping the heel the widthwise stretch imparted to it is substantially greater than any width-wise stretch applied to other parts of the stocking. The stocking i knitted throughout by rotation, thus permitting the heel to be knitted at substantially the same speed as the remainder of the stocking. By rotational knitting the tube of fabric as shown in FIG. 2 open at both ends is first formed, knitting pref-' erably being performed commencing at the toe end and proceeding along the foot and up the leg portion. After completion of the tube the toe end is cut to shape and seamed and then the stocking is stretched on a form to bring it to the desired final shape and set.

As shown in the drawings the heel pouch is partially formed during the knitting of the stocking by arranging that at the heel a greater number of courses are knitted by the heel needles than by the remaining needles from which the instep portion of the fabric is knitted. In those courses in which the heel needles only are active to knit, a length of loose yarn extends from end to end, of the heel courses inside the stocking; such loose lengths of y-arn are subsequently removed by cropping. The group of heel needles which remain always in knitting activity during knitting of the heel may be equal to, but is preferably less than the number of the remainder of the needles which are withdrawn periodically from knitting activity during the knitting of the heel. In the knitting of the stocking shown the heelward group represents about a quarter of the total number of needles around the cylinder, the remainder being referred to for convenience as instep needles, although some of them serve to knit fabric at the sides of the heel. In the knitting of the heel it is found that an appropriate partial pouch formation is produced by holding the instep needles out of knitting activity for three out of every four courses at the heel.

In the most preferred way of carrying out the invention the heel of the stocking is knitted in such a way that certain selected ones of the instep needles near the ends of the group of instep needles are caused to be active with the heel needles while other instep needles between said selected ones are brought into and out of knitting activity with the remaining instep needles. This ensures that at the junction between the heel wales and the wales of the instep group at the sides of the stocking formed during the knitting of the heel, the portions of fabric having different numbers of courses are connected at a plurality of wales and the subsequent stretching of the tubular fabric on the form will be much less liable to cause dragging of thin places between the wales such as would tend to mar the appearance and wearing qualities of the finished stocking.

FIGURE 3 shows an enlarged view of a portion of the fabric containing the junction between the heelward portion and the instep portion at the heel, and a number of heel wales are indicated at H while a group of instep wales as shown at I. The eight wales on the instep side adjoining heel fabric H are numbered 1 to 8 and will be seen that numbers 1, 2, 3 and 6 have knitted loops at every fourth course as in the case of Wale 8 and the other instep wales, while wales numbered 3, 4 and 7 have knitted loops at every course as in the case of the heel fabric H.

During intermediate courses when no loops are formed at wales, 1, 2, 5 and 6 the yarn is floated on the inside of the fabric. By proceeding in this manner the finished stocking has at each side of the heel a marking indicated at 13 in iFIGURES l and 2 where the junction between the heel fabric H and the instep fabric I occurs. Such marking is not unduly obtrusive, being little more prominent than the suture marking caused by shaping on fully fashioned stockings and the heel of the stocking shown in FIGURE 1 has a general appearance not greatly differing from that of the heel of a fully fashioned stocking.

The stocking shown in the drawing is provided with a mock seam 14 and may have mock fashioning marks incorporated in it or may be fashioned in any known manner.

FIGURES 4 to 6 illustrate the modification of a known form of circular knitting machine to enable knitted courses as shown in FIGURE 3 to be formed while knitting the heel portion of the stocking. For this purpose the heel needles for knitting wales as at H in FIGURE 3 are provided with butts which are shorter than those of the remaining needles with the exception of those used for knitting on each side of the stocking, wales corresponding to those indicated at 3, 4 and 7 in FIGURE 3; and an additional selecting cam is provided and brought into operation during the knitting of the heel so as to engage all of the longer needle butts in advance of the stitch cam and depress them so that they will pass below the stitch cam. Such additional cam is indicated at 15 in FIGURES 4 and 5.

Referring to FIGURE 4, the machine comprises a main framework 16 and a rotating needle cylinder 17 which is rotated during operation of the machine in an anticlockwise direction as viewed from above and is formed with needle trick-s 17a. The cam box for operating on the needle butts to perform the knitting operation is indicated diagrammatically by chain lines at 18. On a table 19 on the machine there is mounted a block 20, the upper face of which is grooved to form a slideway for a short bar 21 carrying the cam 15 in the form of a plate which is curved somewhat as viewed in plan to conform to the needle cylinder and has an inclined cam edge 22 engageable with needle butts in a manner later described. The groove in the upper part of the block 20 is closed by a cover plate 23. The bar 21 is urged by a spring 24 in the direction to move the cam 15 towards the needle cylinder 17 and has a depending projection 25 carrying an adjustable stop screw 26 for engaging the block 20 to determine the inward position of the cam 15. On the bar 21 there is a lateral pin 27 engaged by a co-operating finger on a lever 28 secured to a rock shaft 29 carrying a further lever 39 coupled by a link 31 to a double-armed lever 32. The latter carries a pivot pin 33 by which it is pivoted to the bracket 134 on the table 19. Coupled to the lower arm of the lever 32, is a link 34 anchored at its rear end to the upper end of an upstanding lever 35 the latter being pivoted at its lower end at 36 to a bracket 37 secured to the back of the machine frame 16. The link 34 is spring urged by a spring 38 to urge it forwardly so :as to move the lever 28 towards the needle cylinder and thereby permit the cam 15 to be urged towards the cylinder by the spring 24.

The stop screw 26 associated with the bar 21 is adjusted so that in its most inward position towards the needle cylinder the cam 15 will lie in the path of the longer needle butts but be spaced outwardly from the cylinder sufficiently to avoid contact with the short needle butts. Thus when the cam 15 is in its inmost setting such needles as have longer butts are withdrawn downwardly by engagement with cam edge 22 sufficiently to miss the stitch cam. Needles having short butts will not, however, be deflected downwardly and will engage with the stitch cam in normal manner. When the cam 15 is withdrawn to an outward position none of the needle butts will be engaged by it and all needles will be permitted to be operated by the stitch cam for normal knitting. It will be seen that the arrangement is such that the cam 15 is moved to its operative selecting position by spring action and withdrawn from such position by operation of the lever 35 to rock it rearwardly. The lever 35 is adapted to be rocked in this way by means of a cam projection 39 secured to a gear wheel indicated at 40, said projection 39 being adapted to engage with a pin 41 projecting from the far side of the lever 3'5 as viewed in FIGURE 4. The gear wheel forms part of the normal mechanism of z" the machine and is geared to the needle cylinder in such a way that the gear 40 makes one rotation in every four rotations of the needle cylinder 17. It will be noted that cam 39 extends only around approximately a quarter of the circumference of the wheel 40 and it is so timed that the lever 35 is rocked rearwardly when the heel group of needles is passing the cam 15 and is permitted to return forwardly at the succeeding corresponding position after the needle cylinder has completed one rotation. Thus during the knitting of the heel the cam 15 is elfective for three rotations of the needle cylinder in every four and out of operation during the fourth rotation.

As the operation of the mechanism so far described is required to occur only during knitting of the heel portion of the stocking means is provided under the control of a usual patterning arrangement (for example a patterning chain) to maintain said mechanism out of operation during the knitting of other portions of the stocking. For this purpose the usual control drum which is indicated at 42 is provided with an extension having a cam projection 43 arranged to co-operate with a follower 44 on a double armed lever 45, 46 pivoted at 47 to a bracket on the machine frame. The rear end of the arm 46 is pivoted at 48 to a vertically movable slide 49 guided in a lower guide (not shown) and in a slot 50 in the rear of the table 19. The slide 49 is urged downwardly by a spring indicated diagrammatically at 51 as being attached to the lever arm 46, and the slide carries a stepped abutment 52 to co-operate with a stop screw 53 adjustably mounted in a bracket on the lever 35. The arrangement is such that with the slide in its downward position, as shown, the peak 54 of the stepped bracket 52 engages the screw 53 to hold the cam 15 away from the needle cylinder. When the cam projection 43 rocks the lever 45, 46 so as to raise the slide 49, the lever 35 is drawn inwardly by spring 38 to bring the pin 41 into the path of the cam member 39. This action is arranged to take place at the commencement of knitting of the heel portion and on completion of the heel the follower 44 rides off the projection 43 and the spring 51 urges the slide 49 downwardly so that when the lever 35 is again rocked rearwardly by th Cam 39 the peak 54 of the projection 52 is permitted to engage with the screw 35 and thereby hold the cam 15 away from the needle cylinder during the knitting of the remainder of the stocking.

FIGURE 6 illustrates diagrammatically the arrangement of cams as viewed looking outwardly from the needle cylinder the paths of the needle butts being shown in chain lines and the arrows 55 indicating the direction of movement of the needle butts in relation to the cam. The usual stitch cam is indicated at 56 and the upthrow cam at 57. Assuming the cam 15 shown on the right of FIGURE 6 is in its inmost setting, the path of the butts of short butt needles is indicated by the chain lines at 58, and that of all the longer butt needles is indicated by the chain lines at 59. It will be seen that the longer butt needles are deflected downwardly by the cam 15 so as to miss the stitch cam '56 and pass forwardly below it so that these needles are maintained out of knitting activity. The short butt needles, however, are missed by the cam 15 and they pass in the normal way to the stitch cam 56 to perform knitting action. The arrangement of the butts on the needles is shown in FIG. 7 and is such that the group of needles from which the wales extending round the heel group are knitted (these being the wales corresponding to those indicated at H in FIGURE 3) have short butts 60 while the remaining needles which may be referred to as the instep group, with certain exceptions have longer butts 61. The exceptions just referred to are spaced needles in the instep group near the ends thereof which may for example be the needles for knitting wales a corresponding to those shown at 3, 4- and 7 in FIGURE 3, these needles having short butts 61a so that they remain in knitting activity with the heel group. It will thus be seen that with the machine arranged as shown in FIG- URES 4 and 5 knitting of the heel portion to produce a partial heel pouch, as shown in FIGURE 2 with a fabric structure each side of the heel the same as, or closely similar to that shown in FIGURE 3 may be elfected auto matically.

It will be appreciated that the particular needles selected from among the instep group for knitting with the heel needles during the heel formation may be varied as desired. While FIGURE 3 shows a fabric structure produced by an arrangement wherein the needles for knitting wales Nos. 3, 4 and 7 have been selected for this purpose any other desired arrangement of selected needles from among the end needles of the instep group may be employed, it being preferred to arrange matters so that there are at least two needles of the instep needles interposed between needles which are active with the heel needle group during the heel formation. It will also be appreciated that the instep needles having the longer butts may be arranged with butts of different lengths in any desired arrangement for patterning or other purposes, in which case some instep needles may have long butts and others medium length butts, while the heel needles and those arranged to be brought into knitting action with them have short butts, the cam being arranged to engage both the long butts and the medium butts but miss the short butts when in operative position for selection of needles for knitting and non-knitting at the heel.

In forming the heel pouch partially by knitting more courses at the heelward portion than at the forward or instep portion of the stocking the relative number of heelward courses and instep courses may be varied as desired. Arrangements may also be made whereby the selected needles near the ends of the group of the instep needles which are caused to knit when other instep needles are inactive are brought into knitting action only at selected ones of the heelward courses knitted while the instep group of needles is inactive. This can for example be arranged by providing additional butts at a different level on the selected instep needles and providing an additional cam to engage such butts during the knitting of the heel to depress the said needles out of knitting activity for such courses of the heel part during which the selected instep needles are not required to be active. Such an additional cam can be operated by mechanism similar to that used for operating the cam 15.

The yarn employed for the stocking is preferably nylon but any other synthetic linear polyamide filament such for example as that known in the trade as Perlon or that sold under the registered trade mark Terylene may be employed. When the stocking has been taken from the machine and the toe of it completed the stocking is drawn on to a conventional form or shape and while thereon is submitted to heat treatment (desirably above C.) and is then permitted to cool. The form distorts the stocking in the region of the heel to the required shape and the heat renders the filament plastic so that the knitted fabric readily assumes that shape and upon cooling the fabric sets to the assumed shape. Thereafter the stocking can be submitted to any lower temperature without distorting the shape.

It is preferred in forming the stocking to knit from the toe end along the foot towards the heel and upwards along the leg. By knitting in this manner the tendency for runs or ladders to develop heelwardly along the foot is reduced, since laddering in this direction would be confined to the non-exposed sinker wales. The resistance to such runs from the toe end is preferably further enhanced or made complete by incorporating in the first courses of knitting a locking thread in such a way that such thread interlocks with the sinker loops and thereby resists or prevents ladder runs from occurring heelwardly in the sinker Wales.

The invention may be practised in connection with stockings or footwear knitted in conventional manner from welt to toe in which case sufiicient resistance to ladders developing from the toe end may be secured by employing a cotton or other fibrous thread as the normal splicing or reinforcement thread and/or as an additional thread for incorporation at least in the toeward region rearwardly beyond the location where the toe is to be closed.

What we claim is:

l. A circular knitting machine organised to knit the foot, and leg of a ladies stocking by rotational knitting and having a group of heel needles used for knitting the heel pouch and certain needles adjoining them and separated by intervening needles operable by means of butts of one length and other needles including said intervening needles used for knitting the forward or instep portion opposite the heel operable by means of butts of a greater length and a selecting cam movable towards and away from an operative selecting position in relation to the needle in advance of the stitch cam in which selecting position the said selecting cam serves by selective deflection of needles to cause the needles operable by said greater length butts to be Withheld from knitting activity while the remaining needles are caused to knit.

2. A machine according to claim 1 wherein the selecting cam when in its selecting position is arranged to deflect the needles with which the greater length butts are associated out of knitting engagement with the stitch cam.

3. A machine according to claim 1 comprising means for bringing the selecting cam into operation to engage the greater length butts at intervals for at least one course during the knitting of the heel and for maintaining said cam out of operation during the knitting of the remainder of the stocking.

4. A machine according to claim 3 having a lever controlling the said means for bringing the selecting cam into operation, said lever being movable in accordance with a four course sequence and having means controlled by a patterning mechanism for holding said lever in position in which the selecting cam is maintained out of operation except when kntting the heel portion of a stocking.

5. A machine according to claim 1 wherein the needles are arranged in the cylinder in association with butts whereby they are operated, the butts associated with the heel needles and selected needles of the instep group near the ends thereof being short butts while the butts associated with the remaining instep needles are long butts whereby the selection of needles for knitting or nonknitting is effected by the selecting earn.

6. In a circular knitting machine for knitting hosiery by rotational knitting, the combination comprising a tricked needle cylinder, needles mounted in the tricks in said cylinder and constituted by a group of heel needles and a group of instep needles, operating butts for said needles those for the heel needles being of shorter length and those for the instep needles'being longer except for a small number of needles close to the heel needles but separated therefrom by at least one intervening instep needle, a stitch cam to co-operate with the said needles, a selecting cam and means mounting said selecting cam for movement towards and away from an operative selecting position in relation to the needle cylinder in advance of the stitch cam in which selecting position the said selecting cam serves by selecting deflection of needles to cause the needles operable by butts of longer length to be withheld from knitting activity while the remaining needles are caused to knit.

7. In a circular knitting machine for knitting hosiery by rotational knitting, the combination comprising a tricked needle cylinder, needles mounted in the tricks in said cylinder including a group of heel needles for knitting the heels of hose and other needles positioned around the remainder of the needle circle, operating butts for said needles, the butts of said other needles being of a longer length from those for the heel needles except in the case of needles close to the heel needles but separated therefrom by at least one intervening instep needle, a stitch cam to co-operate with the needles of the cylinder, a selecting cam and means mounting said selecting cam for movement towards and away from an operative selecting position in advance of the stitch cam in which selecting position the said selecting cam serves by selective deflection of needles to cause the needles operable by said longer length butts to be withheld from knitting activity while the remaining needles are caused to knit;

8. In a circular knitting machine for knitting hosiery by rotational knitting the combination comprising a tricked needle cylinder, needles mounted in a group of heelward tricks in said cylinder other needles mounted in the remaining tricks in said cylinder operating butts on said needles those for the needles in said remaining tricks being of a longer length from those for the needles in the heelward group of tricks except for a small number of needles close to the heelward group of tricks but separated therefrom by at least one intervening trick, a stitch cam, means mounting said stitch cam to co-operate with the needles during operation of the machine, a selecting cam and means mounting said selecting cam for movement towards and away from the cylinder to and from an operative selecting position in which it engages only with said longer length butts to cause the needles associated with such butts to be moved out of range of the stitch cam while permitting the remaining needles to engage the stitch cam.

9. In a circular hosiery knitting machine the combination comprising a tricked needle cylinder, needles mounted in a group of helward tricks in said cylinder other needles mounted in the remaining tricks in said cylinder, operating butts whereby the said needles are operated, the butts for the needles in the heelward tricks and in a small number of tricks close to the ends of the heelward group but separated therefrom by at least one intervening trick being of a shorter length from the butts of the needles in the remainder of the tricks, a stitch cam to co-operate with the needle butts, a selecting cam and means mounting said selecting cam for movement towards and away from the needle cylinder to and from an operative selecting position in which it engages only with the butts of the needles in the said remainder of the tricks to cause such needles to be moved out of range of the stitch cam while permitting the needles in the heelward group and close to the end thereof to be operated by the stitch cam.

References Cited in the tile of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 1,347,186 Smith July 20, 1920 1,926,814 Nobst et al Sept. 12, 1933 2,703,972 Reymes-Cole et a1 Mar. 15, 1955 

